There is an entire industry around providing productivity advice and tips and tricks to get tasks done. Indeed, Bored Panda has featured some bits of advice, from things people wished they had known earlier, to absurd, out-of-touch recommendations from baby boomers.
But one netizen with ADHD came to the realization that this disorder made a lot of common tips and tricks irrelevant. So they asked the internet to share their similar examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through and be sure to upvote your favorite examples. If you have any of your own, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
#21
After talking to a therapist about my struggles with the work, she said to me "you have to be disciplined"
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40points
#22
Generally any type of advice that questions why you do something a certain way when you could do it a cheaper/better/more environmentally friendly/more natural way. This messed with my ability to function for years before I got a handle on it.
Examples:
- Why would you drink protein shakes? It’s more natural to get your nutrients from food you can get that same protein from x amount of lentils!
-Why do you pay to have your car cleaned? You can do that yourself for free!
-Why are you paying for pre prepped fruit and veg?! It’s cheaper to buy the bag of whole carrots and they don’t come wrapped in plastic!
These are real life examples but it’s now absolutely everywhere especially with the rise of TikTok, a lot of content is aimed at efficiency and streamlining our budgets so I see a lot of this cropping up. Even one hairdresser making videos about ‘Why buy an airwrap? You can create this style with a hairdryer and hairbrush!”
If someone with ADHD or any condition impacting their executive function has found a way to do the thing then that is perfectly fine. The advice above led me to 1. Not eat, because protein shakes were now wrong and I didn’t have it in me to prep lentils daily, shockingly. 2. Have a car so messy I couldn’t have passengers. 3. Not get any fruit or veg at all in my diet.
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39points
#23
I have to, HAVE TO, be listening to something that stimulates my brain or I will completely zone out at work. Also while driving.
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37points
#24
"break a task into smaller tasks" except now I have a hundred little blocks instead of one huge block and I still have to do it, great.
36points
#25
"You need to make a list and write these things down"
I have lists. I have text files saved on my desktop and documents, google docs, google sheets, google keep, apple stickies, apple notes, 2 black moleskines, a handful of legal pads, Microsoft one note, and random folder up pieces of paper in my pocket.
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36points
#26
When you start to get depressed - go and do stuff! Wow, really, tell me how? Second - when depressed, I was depressed ever only because I was burnt out.
Going out and socializing just made me more overstimulated, tired and desperate due to not being able to keep up with others.
So my new advice would be - when getting depressed, first sleep and be alone for a few days, engage with hobbies/hyperfication, and then after this see people and do some light excersise.
34points
#27
“Just make a schedule for the day and follow it!”
Excuse me, I’d rather rip my own eyes out, thank you.
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33points
#28
My dad is fond of telling me: “Ya gotta want it.” I hate when he implies that I don’t want to get better. The kicker is that he has ADHD too (diagnosed or not I don’t know, but he says he does and I believe it). It’s really frustrating and makes me feel like nothing I do is good enough.
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31points
#29
Pomodoro technique. Its the worst.
When I finally get to do the task I need to do the task. Otherwise I am again stuck in getting to do the task.
Same with 45minute school lessons. Literature begins, 30 minutes into it I finally accept that we begun literature, 15 minutes to go and now I have to transform myself into math?? How?
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31points
#30
"If you can't get yourself to focus on something, just take a s**t ton of breaks!" This includes all pomodoro bs and adjacent stuff.
I don't know about y'all, but if I took breaks like that, I'd never be able to focus. I need at least half an hour to even *start* focusing at all, and I'll need another half an hour after I take that break. And if I do manage to focus on something, I need to cram that s**t several hours straight because I know if I break that focus when I have it, I won't be able to get back into it. I won't put a f*****g alarm to distract me every 30 minutes, that will just kill me more.
This kind of extends to any kind of "slow, steady and consistent". People say I need to do a little bit of x every day in order to stay motivated and not burn myself out and I believed that lie until I realized that is precisely how I'll burn myself out. Doing things in intense bursts is the only thing that has ever worked for me. "slow and steady" has never done me any good. I need to do things in bursts, go as fast and as long as I want to, and then take a break when it comes to it. It's the only way I can get anything done.
30points
